Duhawks & Friends: Share Your LOVE of Service With Us!

2/4/2014

During the month of February let’s share our LOVE. Our love for service. In 2012, 1,096 Loras students participated in 58,686 hours of service. In honor of Loras’ 175th anniversary, we are aiming to prove that between our alumni, faculty, staff and students, Duhawks can collect 175,000 hours!

We want to share your stories about how YOU and your fellow Duhawks are living out the Loras mission every day through service. You all have stories to tell, and now is the time to do it. Don’t want to tell your story? No problem, just log your hours instead. Help us reach our goal by filling out the survey and/or sharing your story through the link below.

If you have a story and photo to share please blog about it on the service page or simply log your hours athttp://www.loras.edu/ShareYourService. Let’s collect stories, inspire each other and demonstrate how we
each live out the Loras College mission.

For extra inspiration, check out Danielle Stowell’s(’07) story:

"When I serve others, I know that I am making an impact – somehow making life a little bit better for someone else, and that feels great. Sometimes being generous with your time and talents can reap benefits for yourself that you never intended, far beyond the satisfaction you get from helping others.

When I first moved back to Dubuque several years after leaving Loras, I knew very few people. Most of my friends had moved to big cities like I did, or back to their hometowns after graduation. This town has an amazingly vibrant arts and music culture, which I wanted to experience and be a part of. However, it’s not the most fun thing in the world to go to a concert or festival and just stand around on your own. How awkward, am I right? I decided to sign up for the DCFAS volunteer list, meaning I would get to attend all of the arts-related events that I wanted to for free while working alongside other people who shared my interests. The connections I’ve made and friendships that have formed because of this have led to number of other exciting opportunities and experiences that I wouldn’t have otherwise – all for just occasionally putting in a few hours of (usually really fun) work. That’s a pretty sweet deal.

Serving others is something that you just do, and you do it without having to be asked. Looking back now, I can see how many of the successes I’ve had in life are directly related to being actively engaged in service-learning at Loras. I was offered a job with AmeriCorps immediately after graduation without having to apply for it because the director was happy with my volunteer work at the Multicultural Family Center. Leaders of organizations and businesses that I served with during college happily provided references for me when I began to pursue my career. It’s amazing how wide your network of resources becomes when you share your gifts with others."